I reached out to Italian Citizenship Assistance (ICA) in the second half of 2021 to work with me and three of my family members to acquire my Italian citizenship by descent. I first learned that I could be eligible about ten years before that when I met someone who received her Italian citizenship by descent through her grandfather. At the time, I thought that was interesting, and that I probably qualified, but didn’t do anything about it. When I started the process my Aunt Roberta told me she was interested in acquiring Italian citizenship. She hired someone in Los Angeles where she lives to help her get citizenship through her grandfather, Angelo Rinaldi. She paid him some money and he said it was impossible because he couldn’t find enough documents connected to Angelo to prove our citizenship.
I don’t give up easily, so I asked her if I could take over. My husband did quite a bit of genealogy work on my family and came up with a load of documents that showed definitively that we qualified. We didn’t want to “fail” again, so we hired ICA based on their excellent reputation and success helping others. ICA confirmed that there actually weren’t enough documents available to show an unbroken connection to Angelo Rinaldi, but there were enough to definitively connect us to our grandmother/great-grandmother, Maria Marcovecchio. This, of course, meant that we had a “1948 Case” that required us to go through the Italian courts. For this reason, it was invaluable to have ICA on our side.
From the moment we hired ICA it was a long journey before I finally had my Italian passport in my hands. While the process took a long time, what awaits at the end is more than worth waiting for. Your birthright! I was raised by my grandparents and grew up hearing my grandfather use the phrase, “There are only two kinds of people in the world—Italians and people who want to be Italian.” This was his way of saying “We are Italian”. Every second along the way, I thought of him. He passed in 1999, before I ever knew it was possible for us to actually get our birthright of Italian citizenship. I only wish he had lived long enough to see me holding my Republica Italiana Passaporto.
None of this would have happened if it weren’t for ICA. They not only have the expertise to represent citizenship cases to consulates and in the courts, but the entire staff is unfailingly kind, supportive, patient, and above all professional. If ICA looks at your case and says they’re confident that your case will succeed, believe them. No one works harder and knows more about the ins and outs of Italian citizenship law than Marco Permunian and his team at ICA.
Tina has agreed to serve as a subject of this success story and has granted ICA the right to use her name and image.
